AND AMONG THE BOTOCUDOS. 



3 IX 



the landing-place, to convey the goods by means of carts and oxen ; 

 but the industry of the inhabitants of these wildernesses is not equal 

 to such an exertion. It is to be hoped that the general complaints 

 which have of late been made of the bad condition of a great part 

 of this road, will lead at length to a careful survey and thorough 

 repair of it. 



I remained the following day at the Salto, and set out early in the 

 morning on an excursion to the neighbouring waterfall, the noise of 

 which may be heard at a considerable distance. In order to obtain a 

 view of it, I found it necessary to clamber over large fragments of 

 rocks, irregularly piled on each other. The river, which is compressed 

 into a very narrow channel, rushes roaring and foaming down into 

 the basin below, and spreads around it a cloud of vapour and fine 

 spray : a little lower down it forms a second, more considerable cas- 

 cade over a large ledge of rocks. I experienced here a repetition of 

 the pleasure which I had enjoyed eight years before, in contemplating 

 the far larger waterfalls in Switzerland. Many of the cascades on the 

 Belmonte, especially the Cachoeira do Inferno, have perhaps some 

 resemblance in miniature with the Randal of Atures, and May- 

 pures, of which Humboldt has given an interesting description in his 

 " Views of Nature," only they are not so crowded together and con- 

 tinuous as in the immense Orinoco. Among the fragments of rocks 

 which are wetted by the spray of the Salto, grow some beautiful 

 kinds of shrubs ; among others, a very pretty narrow-leaved myrtle, 

 which was now in flower. 



Another object which had induced me to remain here a day longer, 

 was the hope of obtaining a Botocudo skull. At the Quartel dos 

 Arcos I had been prevented from digging up a body for this purpose ; 

 here I was more fortunate. At a short distance from the buildings 

 they had buried in the recesses of the forest, under luxuriant beauti- 

 fully flowering plants, a young Botocudo, between twenty and thirty 



